Beyond the End teardrop (Tony Latham-style build)

[orourkmw]

I’m Mike in Baton Rouge, building my first teardrop. I am mostly following Tony Latham’s book, but it’s going to be part woody. I built a wood strip kayak a few years ago and plan to translate those techniques. If you’re familiar with the cover of Matt Berger’s book, you’ll see kinda what I have in mind…the exterior sidewalls will be aluminum sheathing on the bottom, and fiberglassed wood strips on the top half. I plan the whole hatch to be a wood strip design. Still don’t know about the roof exterior….but I know I can avoid a lot of upkeep if I don’t go with wood up top.

I started out by building the Paulk workbench on rolling casters....it is so nice to have a big workbench that I can rollout outside or break down as needed, as I have a shop with a one-car rollup door. Space is always a consideration.

I have already built the sidewalls, finished the interior side, and am now stripping. I couldn’t find any 1/8” Baltic birch anywhere around here, so the interior walls are poplar ply. I found a shop in Houston that gets the 1/8” in, and hope to find 10 sheets or so to do the headliner and roof and make the 4-hr trip over next month. I plan to build the cabin first and then the chassis later (though I’m not a welder).

Here are a few pics




Looking forward to being a part of this forum. There is an incredible amount of info here...the key is being able to figure out how to access it efficiently....! I have studied the build journals of Tony, JoeGrz, and GarthB...impressive!
Mike

[tony.latham]

Looks great. That's some nice color in your strips.

Tony

[orourkmw]

Today I finished stripping one exterior wall. I temporarily reinstalled the roof shelf to cut the strips flush. Over the next few days I’ll fair and sand, then I’ll fiberglasss once the temperature cooperates. I can only run one 1500W heater on my circuit, and can generally raise temp by 10F. We should be in the 60s here next week, so I think It’ll hold up long enough to be ok. I can run an extension cord from the house for a second heater during the day, I’ll do the nerve-wracking hatch cut after. Does anybody know if I should do it while the epoxy is still green? I guess it only saves a blade…

Also got my doors yesterday from Challenger, which I ordered Dec 1. They fit my opening great, but some of the styrofoam packaging bags popped open, and it was a mess everywhere. Every crevice on the doors had the small circus peanuts, and I spent an hour fishing them out with a pencil. More worrisome is the way some of the peanuts stuck/melted (?) to the door interior…like they de-polymerized or something…and left a mottled surface. Still trying to figure what cleaner/solvent will work without ruining the surface. I have to say I’m a little disappointed with some of the fit and finish…poorly cut seams with exposed aluminum underneath the black exterior. I’ll figure out something.

Overall, a good couple of days. Maybe in a week or two we’ll have another weather window for the second wall. It’ll take some time to strip the second wall, and perhaps I can start on the floor….but shuffling all these big pieces around is a little bit of a challenge with the edge strips not fiberglassed…they are only 3/16” thick.

[Squigie]

Looks good.
That'll be quite eye-catching when assembled.

[JoeGrz]

The wood strips are a nice touch. The Serenity teardrop is a woody version of Tony’s design. You may also want to look there as well. I am no expert, but I think you will want to let the epoxy fully cure before cutting it. I can’t tell you a specific reason. It’s just my gut feeling. I look forward to seeing your tear come together.

[orourkmw]

Thanks, Joe. I hadn’t heard of the Serenity. I found westerntraveller’s journal, and will read it this evening. Congrats on your build!

[orourkmw]

I've fiberglassed one wall but still have sanding and varnishing to do...yet I couldn't help but get a preview of what it's going to look like. I just dropped the door in, and slid the aluminum in while peeling back a corner of the protective plastic...nothing is attached except the strips. I also just laid down the oak transition board. The aluminum is shinier that I'd like. I know Matt Berger did a light sanding on his, but this is anodized 0.040". We'll see what it looks like when I finally one day get to roll it out of the shop.


I routed the "transition board" so that it would overlap the aluminum and snug up against the wood strips. I will PL Premium it to the aluminum, Titebond III it to the skeleton, and then put a thin line of epoxy at the top edge...I feel pretty confident about not getting a leak here. Here is what the profile of the transition board looks like:


It gives a little burst of excitement to see what I'm headed for. My fiberglassing did not come out flawless. I am using 6 oz e-glass because I had some on hand, and could get 60" for the roof. I am using MAS Tabletop epoxy, also because I had it. I have some different epoxy coming (thin 635 from US Composites), which I used on my kayak. The problems were a few white spots and bubbles...but they pass my "looks great from 5-foot away" test. Google suggests I had some contamination on the glass or surface. I realized I forgot to wipe it down with denatured alcohol. The white spots weren't starved for resin, and I did get some light print-through in a few areas. I certainly would have been comfortable with 4 oz glass over the 3/4" by 3/16" thick strips. Also, I taped up the edges and didn't get any leakage, but I forgot to tape the bulkhead underneath the woodstrips before gluing. Got lucky there, but I'll do it next time.

One other note...I did use 3/4" foam board insulation, but it was those little beads instead of compressed foam (PolyPro by Perma"R"Products....no blue board or pink board was available in 3/4"). Cutting made a mess, but also, I put the foil side out...which I then had to cover with tape in case there were any gaps with the seams (which there were...I thought laying these strips on a flat bed would be easier than a curved kayak...but nothing that a little thickened epoxy can't cure!)

Just ordered a $125 gallon of Total Boat Lust gloss varnish...so many opportunities to screw up things at a great cost! Also planning to order my axle today. Thanks to CapeBuild for offline help. Thanks always to Tony for his invaluable book.
Mike

[tony.latham]

Thanks always to Tony for his invaluable book.

Mike:

Thanks. I can't wait to see the walls up on your new camper!

Tony

[Capebuild]

My fiberglassing did not come out flawless.

Sadly, not sure anything really does. Your wall looks beautiful. I'm a fan of the mixed wood tones. Nice!

[western traveler]

That’s coming right along Mike! Nice job…
Prepare for all the Tear Tours coming your way!

[GarthB]

Looking great so far! Very cool to see all of the variations of Tony's design that builders have come up with.

...so many opportunities to screw up things at a great cost!

"When in doubt, throw it out," was a phrase that I learned the hard way to tell myself every time I mixed epoxy during my build.

[MickinOz]

Dunno if I have PTSD or whatever, but I just had one hell of a flashback.
We had a saying down at the smelter.
"When in doubt, tap out"
Which meant that, whenever things looked like going a bit pear-shaped at the Slag Fumer, 35t of 2200F molten slag got dropped out of the furnace in an emergency tap.

[orourkmw]

Thanks for the kind and encouraging words. One tip I’ll pass along on epoxy measurement for 1:1 ratio mix: I use the pump only on the hardener. I dump straight from my gallon jug into a clear or translucent disposable dollar store cup, and then pump the hardener into a separate cup to match the level. It beats counting number of pumps. I then pour both into a third cup for mixing. If it’s a 2:1 mix, I do use the pump on the epoxy as well, and of course you can’t lose focus. This is my sixth epoxy project and so far I haven’t had any go south on me…knock on wood (plastic?)
Mike

[tony.latham]

One tip I’ll pass along on epoxy measurement for 1:1 ratio mix...

Sounds full proof to me. :thumbs-up:

Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

One tip I’ll pass along on epoxy measurement for 1:1 ratio mix...

Sounds full proof to me. :thumbs-up:

Tony

+2 from two fools!

There is enough epoxy residue on our pumps now (after several years of use) that I wouldn't expect them to dispense the same amount per pump. Beer cup method (or variation there-of) for us!

Tom & Shelly